Okay, now that I've got that outta the way: Hi. I'm Jensen. I'm 17, live in New England, and I've had mild to moderate acne since I was about 8 or 9. I have acne on my face, neck, along my hairline, and on my chest, shoulders, arms, back and upper belly. I haven't tried much in terms of treatment, aside from obsessively washing myself.

I did give ProActiv a couple tries- once when I was 12 and once earlier this year. I have fairly sensitive skin, though, so all it really did was make me dry and itchy and red. (My eldest half-sister tried it too, years before that: it did the same. I don't know anyone it's actually helped.)

I also tried tretinoin cream for a few months, which helped a little bit, but my insurance won't cover it anymore, so I had to stop that.

I have a lot of little scars on my chest and shoulders- a teacher saw them this spring and asked if there was anything I needed to tell her. I didn't get why she'd think that, but when I told my friend he said they look like cigarette burns, and she probably thought I was abused or something.

Right now, I'm kind of at a loss as to what I'm supposed to do. I know that I'm still young, but I've been hearing "it'll clear up on it's own" since I was in elementary school. I can't remember a time that I haven't had acne; not very clearly, at least.

(Also, if it makes a difference, I was probably precocious, in the medical sense. I started puberty at about 8 and was finished at 10. Since then the only change has been a bit of weight gain. My doctor had an x-ray done of my hand, and my bone age is somewhere in the mid-20s.)